Telegram ICO: facts about much hyped token sale project

9 May 2018

Many speculations are spread over the media sources about the Telegram ICO and future cryptocurrency with proprietary blockchain platform developed by the team of the messaging service. As the interest in the Telegram ICO remains high and at the top of discussed events, we decided to make our short overview of the generally available facts about the prehistory and latest details of the whole process.

Background

Telegram has become popular and highly demanded long before its announcement of the Initial Coin Offering. The text messaging service is widely used across the globe by about 170 million active users, including prominent influencers, businesses and political leaders and groups. This makes the ICO of Telegram unique and unmatched, coupled with an unprecedented procedure, whereunder Telegram launched for holding the token crowdsales with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

What is the ICO all about?

The point of launching the ICO differs from that usually sought for by many startups and projects. Unlike usual token sales, where investors get access to the control of the business activity, Pavel Durov, a founder of Telegram, will reserve the entire management of its company. The key objectives for conducting the token sales was to attract more funds for further development of the company to catch up with its major competitors in the market, such as Facebook.

Future outlook

To the best of our knowledge, Pavel Durov wants to develop his own major blockchain system with the follow-up prospects of establishing a standalone cryptocurrency to be known as Telegram Open Network (TON). The ICO will allow investors to purchase digital money dubbed Gram, and those could be exchanged and transferred using the Telegram messenger.

Durov’s blockchain service will enable participants to use blockchain wallets, data storage product similar to Dropbox, proxy server for protecting the privacy of users, app development platform and a payment service.

Money raised so far

In late March it became known that Pavel Durov reported to the SEC about the results of the second fundraising round using the token crowdsales. The second round of the ICO attracted about $850 million from 94 investors under the closed token sales project. The minimum investment amount for the round was $1 million. The information about the second round appeared in the media in late February, 2018.

During the presale round of the ICO, Telegram collected the same amount ($850 million) from 81 investors, while the applications for the presale totaled to $3.8 billion.

According to the people with the knowledge of the matter, the company plans to hold the third round within this year. The price for one token will allegedly be $2 per a coin.

Key differentiators

The first and foremost differentiator of the Telegram ICO making it unique on the background of thousands of other token crowdsales is the fact that in contrast to other projects, where funds are raised to develop the future business, Telegram is an established service with an extensive network of users and fans, not to mention a strong team behind the company.

The whole process of the ICO is also unparalleled, because the funds for the campaign are raised in fiat currency, in real cash, not in Ether or other digital currencies. Besides, the ICO is accessible only for accredited investors with large capitals, ordinary users cannot participate in the token crowdsales given high thresholds for a minimum investment amount.

Nevertheless, Durov promised that in the long term the company may hold a public ICO to allow minor investors to participate too. During the public ICO every user will be able to purchase some Gram coins. He also made a statement that if by 2019 he fails to create the blockchain and the cryptocurrency, all investors will be refunded.

The Telegram ICO is registered with the SEC, as Durov has ambitions to pose its blockchain platform along with the cryptocurrency system as a legal product. The SEC has published its concerns over multiple ICOs held today by young startups seeking for extra financing, as the regulator views such transactions as investment into securities.